Meth trade forges unlikely link between Rohingya and Myanmar soldiers

By Aidan JONES, Sam JAHAN, Hla Hla HTAY in Yangon (AFP)
May 9, 2018 in World

Huge quantities of meth are seeding unrest inside Bangladesh's refugee camps, as jobless Rohingya turn drug runners for a criminal chain that stretches back to Myanmar -- and the soldiers who drove them out.

The little red methamphetamine pills, better known as 'yaba', that have got Southeast Asia high for decades are pouring westwards from Myanmar.

Rohingya refugees are moving them across Bangladesh’s Cox's Bazar district, which hosts around one million of their stateless Muslim minority.

And drug money is bringing new problems to an already traumatised refugee community.

Bangladesh authorities warn shootings, extortion and kidnappings linked to drug disputes are on the rise, adding another layer of complexity and danger to life in the seething camps.

"Many young men are falling into the drug lords' trap," says Abdus Salam, a Rohingya community leader in the Shamlapur refugee camp. "It's very easy to exploit refugees."

Over 100 Rohingya have been arrested on drug charges since last August, when a vicious crackdown by Myanmar's army expelled the Muslim minority into Bangladesh in huge numbers.

Drug seizures in Cox's Bazar are skyrocketing, as organised crime gangs recruit from the vast pool of cheap and expendable labour.

On March 15, 1.8 million tablets were dumped along the Cox's shore by spooked traffickers. Days later, a further 900,000 were found abandoned in boats.

But a lot more are getting into Bangladesh undetected, according to the country's Department of Narcotics Control, which estimates 250-300 million pills will be popped this year.

Drug money is also blurring dividing lines in unexpected ways, as ethnic Rakhine Buddhists -- who loathe the Rohingya and helped force them out -- elbow their way into the trafficking racket into Bangladesh.

With the price of a yaba pill tripling to $3-$3.5 in Bangladesh "no one cares who is Buddhist or Rohingya", explains Bangladesh Border Guard commander Lieutenant Colonel Asadud Zaman Chowdhury.

- Meth town -

Nearly all of Bangladesh's yaba arrives from Myanmar across the Naf river, which last year was packed with boatloads of fleeing Rohingya, their exit framed by dark billows of smoke from torched villages.

Now, the boats also ferry pills, made in the meth labs of eastern Myanmar.

They arrive around Teknaf, where locals say the trickle-down of narco profits can be seen in the souped-up motorbikes and lavish homes that stand out in an otherwise scruffy district.

A single main road runs from Teknaf north to Cox's Bazar City.

Seizures of yaba -- caffeine-laced meth pills -- have rocketed as the refugee camps in Bangladesh have swollen

MUNIR UZ ZAMAN, AFP

It is peppered with checkpoints, but still the poorest locals and increasing numbers of Rohingya take the daily risk of muling drugs.

On a recent Friday AFP witnessed two seizures within an hour along the road.

The first was of 12,000 of the vanilla-scented pills, found stuffed under a seat on an abandoned bus, which was aptly named the 'Nil Enterprise.'

Shortly afterwards, a woman travelling with her young daughter was arrested with drugs stashed inside pouches of tamarind. She could be jailed for up to two years.

- Soldiers -

On the other side of the border, the identities of those at the pinnacle of the Rakhine drug pyramid remain elusive, but lower down the chain, officials, local businessmen and soldiers have all been caught.

On Monday an army private was arrested at a checkpoint in Myanmar's Maungdaw district with 200,000 tablets -- a subsequent search led to a stash house with 1.6 million pills packed in bags ready for transit.

Desperate conditions inside the refugee camps and the unavailability of legal work have forced some Rohingya into ferrying drugs

Munir UZ ZAMAN, AFP/File

On October 1, 2017, while Rakhine was still white-hot with violence, a pair of soldiers were detained in Maungdaw town -- a few kilometres from the Naf river -- with nearly two million yaba pills worth around $2.8 million locally.

Big pay days are also stirring unlikely alliances.

Speculation is mounting that Rakhine and Rohingya militant groups, both fighting Myanmar's state for different reasons, are collaborating over drugs.